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How combining Blockchain & Data analytics can help Procurement
Blockchain and Data Analytics have emerged in recent years as technologies that are changing the way businesses operate. the two are often spoken about in a mutually exclusive way, however this should not be the case. When both are combined and utilised in functions such as Procurement & Supply Chain then enhanced strategic goals are achieved and better decisions are made.
It is no longer adequate for Procurement teams to just utilise data platforms such as spend analytics. These platforms traditionally focus on harnessing and presenting spend data. The evolution and enhanced demands placed upon organisations now mean requirements such as categorisation from source, authenticity and enhanced trust in data sharing is now a priority.
Blockchain is a technology that creates trust in trustless environments (such as a Supply Chain). The technology has the capability to record multiple transactions from source. This data can be product related (Production volumes, delivery status, SKU profiles) and/or can be policy related (ESG data & supporting requirements to authenticate issues such as Anti-Slavery).
Like all technology data based platforms such as Spend Analytics has its challenges I have experienced multiple cases on inaccessible data, data silos held on multiple legacy systems, privacy issues and of course dirty data. When specifically looking at dirty data it is here that Blockchain can provide the required added value organisations now require. In utilising a consensus mechanism and having the ability to act as a middleware thus having the ability to extract and validate data from multiple sources accuracy is transformed and teams can then make enhanced and relevant strategic decisions relating to spend and supply base. Validated data comes structured and complete and further more is immutable.
In conclusion it is no longer enough to simply adopt a spend analytics platform that does not provide the enhanced requirements that technology such as Blockchain and Smart contracting can provide. The two are not exclusive.